"The Green Hell". That is the moniker given by drivers, to the most famous racetrack on the planet, or infamous, perhaps, as we are about to celebrate the golden anniversary of the Nurburgring 24 Hours. So, let's review the highlights of this magnificent motor race. So wonderful to have fans back on the full circuit at the Nurburgring this year after the last couple years of the cursed global virus pandemic. The fans (within reason, and heavily guarded by marshals for safety) were able to stand at the side of the track to watch their heroes drive by on the parade and pace laps. There we see the gorgeous silver trophy engraved with the winners from years gone by and their fastest lap times, and the man of the hour, one of them, Mr. Jim Glickenhaus, in his team overalls and trademark cowboy hat.
We can see another picture of Jim standing actually with one of the Ferrari drivers in the pole sitting Octane126 Ferrari 488 GT3, car #26. That could be Luca Ludwig, the starting driver in the gold Ferrari. The all-Swiss lineup has Luca Ludwig sharing with Bjorn Grossman, Simon Trummer, and Jonathan Hirschi in one of just two Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo '22's in the field today. The fans get up close and personal with these fantastic supercars that are the GT3 cars and are ready for a fabulous race here at the Nurburgring from day into night and back into day. The past two years have seen this event not complete it's full distance because of the moods of the weather here on the Nordschleife. Like only a handful of circuits in the world, this place has it's own moods, it's own microclimate, being in the mountains. How will the weather pan out this year? We're about to find out.
Teams in their pit bunkers surrounded by myriads and banks of monitors and computer systems looking after the performance of their cars and at the weather radar. A final fist bump or handshake to the drivers to say "good luck and Godspeed. Stay safe out there in the opening stint." A mechanic making one final check of the #5 Scherer Sport Team Phoenix Audi R8 LMS GT3. Ricardo Feller set to start that car, sharing with Vincent Kolb, Frank Stippler, and Kelvin van der Linde, the South African now living in Germany. Feller, the Swiss driver, ready to go.
The green flag waves setting the cars off on the longest formation lap possible around the Nordschleife. It's time to bring the action! The longest pace lap has begun, and we can see the fans out there, right at the edge of the road to cheer on their heroes. Ladies and gentlemen, be sure to get to safety when the cars begin to fly around the Nordschleife. I know you all will be sensible and watch this fabulous race from a safe distance on the mountain. We see one of the onboard shots on the roof of one of the Team GetSpeed Mercedes AMG GT3's, the "Race Taxi" entries that are resplendent in the pink and blue BWT sponsorship for this race.
Here are some of the slower classes of touring cars. There's a JCW (John Cooper Works) Mini, one of the BMW M2 or M4 models, and the Toyota Corolla Altis. We see the flags of the corner marshals resplendent in their orange uniforms. That is the one distinction. In America, the corner marshals wear white uniforms. In Europe, orange uniforms. Same purpose. Different colors. Without these folks, there would be no motorsports at all, and we owe them a debt of gratitude for keeping things safe. God Bless the track marshals. They are waving to the drivers to wish them good luck, as the excitement mounts.
In a long helicopter shot (which we have plenty of here at the Nurburgring) we see the crocodile of GT3 cars winding their way uphill. Alright. The cars are formed up behind the safety car on the Dottinger Hohe, the long straightaway up to the start/finish line, weaving around to generate heat into their tires in a race that sees an open tire usage for teams and brands. Most sports car championships have one official tire supplier for capping budgets and costs. Here at the Nurburgring, this race is one of few left in the world where you have several tire suppliers. We have at least five I think represented in SP9 alone. Michelin, Pirelli, Goodyear, Falken, and I think Yokohama is the other.
A bit of last-minute energy boosting for the pit crews. We can see a mechanic, kitted up on his team's pit crew, enjoying a dreamsicle. That is the orange flavored ice cream bar on a stick of course, that is half orange flavored and half vanilla ice cream flavored. Alright. Back to the iconic shot of the GT3 racer's in Noah's Ark formation. You have the GT3 factory backed teams as well as the SPX cars, the experimental GT cars meaning the Glickenhaus as well as the GT2 spec KTM Crossbow's that have shown speed and did so in top qualifying yesterday.
Alright. The cars are on the front straightaway, the first of three massive starting groups we have in this race that will go in separate waves before they are intermingled into their own battles as the race begins. We've got a green flag and we're underway here at the Nurburgring! Punch it! The race is on! The GT3 cars dive into the first corner. Ferrari leads ahead of one of the two Rowe Racing BMW M4 GT3's and the BMW Junior Team example, car #72 being shared by Dan Harper, Max Hesse, and Neil Verhagen. It is crowded as the battles rage and the legendary "Grello" (green and yellow) Porsche 911 GT3R of Manthey Racing is making it's way up through the field after taking a penalty and starting caboose on the field in group one for SP9 and SPX.
Kevin Estre, the Frenchman, the Porsche factory ace, starting that car sharing with Michael Christensen, Fred Makowiecki, and Laurens Vanthoor. A little argy bargy right at the beginning. That's one of the two Falken Tire Porsche 911 GT3R's and the Mann Filter Mercedes AMG GT3 scrapping early on in this motor race. Up onto the Nordschleife for the first time, we see the gold and orange Octane126 Ferrari beginning to eke out a lead on the Rowe Racing BMW. Cannot tell if that is the #98 or the #99. For your information, #98 is to be driven by the quartet of Nicky "The Cat" Catsburg, John Edwards, Sheldon van der Linde, and Marco Wittman. The Dutchman, the American, the South African, and the German.
Sheldon van der Linde is the brother of Audi's Kelvin van der Linde. So, a few sets of brothers competing in SP9 but for different teams. We have the van der Linde brothers and the Vanthoor brothers, Laurens and Dries. Laurens part of the Manthey Porsche team and Dries in the Audi for Team Phoenix. As we check out another helicopter shot of the cars screaming through the forest, watch too for the Konrad Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3. This is a car that may have flown under the radar in SP9. But they too are ones to look out for. Car #7, shared by Zimbabwe's Axcil Jeffries, South African Lamborghini factory driver Jordan Pepper, Michele De Martino from Italy, now living here in Germany, and German Maximilian Hacklander.
We ride onboard with one of the Falken Motorsports Porsche's. That is the 911 GT3R #33 with Sven Muller at the wheel of it reeling in the competition ahead. Muller sharing this car with Australian Jaxon Evans, Austria's Marco Seefried, and French Porsche factory veteran, Patrick Pilet. The #72 BMW Junior Team M4 GT3 is on a roll, Neil Verhagen driving, the American BMW junior driver, making his way uphill through the righthander at either Kottenborn or Schwedenkreuz. Some dust kicked up up ahead by another of the BMW's it appears, chasing hard after the gold Ferrari, that is the Octane126 car.
Yes indeed. Through the Carousel (one of two on the course, you have the big Carousel (Karussell), and the Kleine Karussell, the miniature carousel), That is one of the Rowe cars followed in hot pursuit by the BMW Junior team entry. It should be noted that this new BMW M4 GT3 is a far more well balanced package than the old BMW M6 GT3 that was a legendary car around the Nordschleife. The size of the M4 is actually bigger, I think, but the car is said to have superior handling with it's 3 liter V6 power and of course the old M6 had the 4.4 liter twin turbo V8. Lapped traffic for the GT3 boys already in the form of one of the slowest cars, the little Dacia Logan sedan. With the 1980s Opel Manta that usually races here at the Nurburgring out of action and maybe headed to a happy retirement or to the historic Nurburgring series, the Dacia Logan could develop into a new fan favorite.
This little compact car runs in the SP3 division as car #118 and is shared by the all-German quartet of Jurgen Bussman, Oliver Kriese, and brothers Yannik and Michael Lachmayer. Onto one of the long straights, perhaps onto the Dottinger Hohe, the GT3 cars just scream past it with it's little four cylinder motor. The slower cars really have to watch themselves when the SP9 cars go by. There used to be classes for tiny little compact cars. Suzuki Swift's, Daihatsu Charade's, Volkswagen Polo's and the like. But with the GT3 era, those little compact cars, the Dacia Logan is the last vestige of that because the little economy cars were just too slow and a safety risk to a pro driver thundering around The Ring in a GT3 monster.
To the Flugplatz we go. This corner is called Flugplatz or Flying Place, because the cars literally get airborne as they go over the jump. One of the TCR cars, that looks like a Seat Cupra to me, wisely moves out of the way as the BMW is gaining on the Ferrari. This should be I think, Nicky Catsburg still in hot pursuit of Luca Ludwig. Ferrari, Lamborghini, BMW. Oh man. Turn up the heat here, look. That's Jordan Pepper in the Konrad Lamborghini and he is applying the blowtorch to Luca Ludwig in the Ferrari! He wants by, into the lead up the hill on the Dottinger Hohe I think just after exiting Galgenkopf barreling towards the two famed corners at the end of the lap, at Antoniusbuche and Tiergarten.
Bish, bash, bosh. Pepper makes the pass stick, and team boss Franz Konrad, himself, a former sports car driver around the world (who has competed in a number of the legendary races), he has a huge grin on his face! The whole team is extremely satisfied with Jordan Pepper's performance thus far! He nods to the mechanics. Oh yeah! Jordan is absolutely crushing it! More epic battles on the Nordschleife as we watch Patrick Pilet at ther wheel of the #44 Falken Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R and up ahead some more dust flies. That is perhaps the sole GT3 Aston Martin up ahead, or, it is one of the GT4 examples of the Aston Martin Vantage. Hard to tell as we look through the onboard camera mounted on the dashboard of the Porsche looking straight through the windscreen.
A couple of the Porsche Cup cars are in a battle of their own through the Karussel making their way to Eschbach and then the downhill side of the circuit. Car #131 leads car #126. These are the new generation Porsche Cup cars, the 992 model Porsche 911s. #131 is Muhlner Motorsport SRL sponsored by German spring and suspension components maker H&R with an all-German quartet. Marcel Hoppe, Nick Salewsky, Michael Rebhan, and Thorsten Jung. #126 is RPM Racing resplendent in the lime green and blue of Tracy Krohn's team who used to run under his own name with Riley and Lola chassis' in the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series Daytona Prototype class before the merger to create the new IMSA. Since then, Krohn, the Texas oil man, and his longtime co-driver, Sweden's Niclas Jonsson, have moved to racing at the Nurburgring.
Krohn and Jonsson are joined by a couple familiar names, Mario Farnbacher, the rapid German who is a Honda GT3 factory driver back stateside, and Porsche ace veteran from Holland, Patrick Huisman, who, if my memory serves me, also drove in Porsche's with his brother Duncan in international sports car racing and particularly in a GT2 turbo 911 Porsche in the old American Le Mans Series. We can see the Krohn Porsche Cup car getting extremely loose in the Karrusel, and he saved that thing! Good onya' mate! Yet more high speed and slow-motion action from over the Flugplatz. Back on the Dottinger Hohe and the BMW Junior Team M4 GT3 is still monstering the gold Octane126 Ferrari! Pulling out for the pass, the slipstream, we can see Neil Verhagen going for the pass on Luca Ludwig.
What do you know? He makes it stick! Flying uphill another time, and now we can see more argy bargy as the Audi #15 nudges Patrick Pilet in the #44 Falken Tire Porsche 911 GT3R off the road and onto the grass against the Armco. Track limits. What pray tell, are these track limits? There are none here at the Nordschleife. If you go off the road, the track limits are the grass and the Armco barrier. Pilet skids along the wall, hitting it at least twice! There will be right front fender damage to the two-tone blue Falken Tire Porsche, surely. Scheduled pit stops are upon us. As you can see, with the crowded pit lane here at the Nurburgring, the cars must be turned sideways for the pit crews to work on them. The air jacks raise the cars and then the pit crews put the dollies underneath them to turn them at a 45-degree angle so there is enough room to work on them for fueling and tire changes.
The fueling arrangement is unique as well. It is a gas pump like you'd find at your gas station, and not a gravity fed fuel rig like most endurance sports car teams use with a bowser at the top and two hoses, one to flow the fuel into the tank and the other to release air from the fuel system. One of the Audi's (trying to see which one it is) beats both the gold Octane126 Ferrari and the #3 BWT Team GetSpeed Mercedes AMG GT3 off the pit lane. That is the car being shared by Adam Christodoulou of England alongside German's Maximilian Gotz and Fabian Schiller. Well, well. Someone has a nice seat as they have made their own scaffolding, their own pratt perch up in the trees in the forest and it must be dinnertime as the fans enjoy a couple of fine German pilsner beers and a schnitzel or bratwurst.
Pit stop time for the #7 Konrad Motorsports Lamborghini. Franz Konrad, team owner, has his iPhone out and shows one of the drivers that the Lambo has damage to the front nose section. Oh deary me. More spinning out on the circuit. Who is into the spin cycle this time? A Porsche Cayman loses it out of one of the high speed turns (can't tell where it is on the road), and, wallop! He has a major clatter into the Armco. It is not even into darkness yet and the pit crews are already trying to catch a few winks to be prepped for the nighttime hours.
Pit strategy discussion among one of the all-female crews in this motor race. It looks like this team has an all-female driver lineup and pit crew. This is one of the three Giti tire sponsored cars, and so that is yet another tire brand we forgot to mention in the opening of the race along with the heavy hitters from Michelin, Pirelli, Falken, and Goodyear for instance. Oh dear! Speaking of tires, it's trouble for the Octane126 Ferrari! The left rear Goodyear Eagle on that car is about to part company with the wheel down the Dottinger Hohe! The car comes back to the pit lane and the pit crew leaps into action. Now what we hope for is that damaged tire did not wind it's way around the suspenson and break and axle, a wishbone, or a control arm, because that is something that can take you right out of the event.
We see a crewman cutting away bodywork with a rotary saw. Meanwhile, all is well in the Glickenhaus pit and team boss Jim Glickenhaus running in SPX seems happy with things. A totally different driver lineup at Glickenhaus for this race than they would have for their Hypercar team in World Endurance. This is the #706 SP-X Glickenhaus SCG004-C being shared by German's Thomas Mutsch and Felipe Fernandez Laser, Franck Mailleux of France, and Richard Westbrook of England. "Westy" and Mailleux are a part of the Le Mans Hypercar team in World Endurance for Glickenhaus as well. The battle in SP9 continues simmering with Kelvin van der Linde, the South African in the Audi Sport Team Phoenix Audi R8 LMS GT3 chasing down the "Grello" (green and yellow) Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3R.
In turn they are both chasing one of the Rowe Racing BMW M4 GT3's going into the first turn on the Grand Prix circuit. Porsche, Audi, Mercedes, racing out onto the Nordschleife again, and it looks like they have some TCR traffic to deal with. The global spec TCR cars are front wheel drive and powered by 2.0 liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engines putting out about 300 horsepower. That's half the power of a GT3 monster, but they are still quick. Pit stop time at the top of the shop. Manthey Porsche, Phoenix Audi, GetSpeed/BWT Mercedes. Kelvin van der Linde should stay aboard the Audi as from the onboard camera in car #15 we see one mechanic rotating the car on the dollies and another cleaning the screen.
van der Linde got back on the track an immediately met up not in a way he'd like, with one of the pink, white, and blue Getspeed BWT Mercedes cars! That is a slow zone as you can see a recovery vehicle off to the side of the road, assisting a stranded car. Trying to read the number panel on tat one. It is a Porsche. Hard to tell if it is a 911 Cup car or a GT4 class Cayman Clubsport. Cannot read the number, as the Opel SUV is towing the car to safety. In another closeup camera shot, we can see the #11 Audi R8 LMS GT3 flying 'round the Nordschleife. This is the SP9 Pro-Am Audi with Pierre Kaffer and Elia Erhart the top drivers on the team alongside Michael Heimrich and Arno Klasen.
We have seen Kaffer and Erhart race and win in the Creventic 24 Hour Series before. Kaffer has a long history in GT racing with Ferrari and Audi and at one time also drove Audi prototypes back in the days of the privately entered Team Veloqx R8 open cockpit spyders not to be confused with the current GT3 cars. Over the brow and it's a ding dong scrap, look, between the Manthey Porsche and the Phoenix Audi. This is the Vanthoor brothers. Laurens in the "Grello" Manthey Porsche and Dries in the Phoenix Audi. The battle continues up onto the main straightaway. The two brothers, both accomplished factory drivers for Stuttgart and Ingolstadt respectively, not giving each other an inch.
Dries is going to try passing Laurens on the outside, right on the white line between the track and the grass. This is going to be risky. It looks like Dries Vanthoor knows the risk and is willing to take it. Laurens Vanthoor in the Porsche inches up alongside but it's too late! Vanthoor spins off the road and absolutely clobbers the righthand side Armco, demolishing the Porsche! Manthey Racing over, and out! He comes to rest on the slip road next to the tire barrier. Here's it all again in slow motion replay from Laurens Vanthoor's onboard camera view. Dries looks like he is going outmuscle his brother on the straightaway. He clips the right front fender of the Porsche which loosens and sends the car spinning!
Hold on ladies and gentlemen. We're going for a ride, and this is going to hurt! Laurens Vanthoor spins backwards and then... ker-runch! The Armco administers, the coup de gras! He spun another complete 360 after that! From another angle we can study this fracas. This is from Adam Christodoulou's onboard camera, looking out the windscreen of the #3 Mercedes-AMG Team Getspeed car. The brothers touch each other once, Laurens Vanthoor loses tractions and is sent reeling into the Armco! Ouch! That's one of those sore in the morning kind of deals. The Manthey Racing mechanics looking on from the garage in disbelief. They are flabbergasted.
We have fixed camera angle replay again of this crackup as if we need to see it another time. Ugh! That just smarts. That's one of those accidents where the driver wakes up in the morning with black and blue bruises where the shoulder belts were. Laurens Vanthoor standing forlornly beside the track thinking, "what on earth just happened to me?!" Dries Vanthoor, his brother, is on his merry way. Later, we will learn, that there might not be any animosity between the brothers. But it is hard to say at this moment if the two of them will be exchanging Christmas cards. Our brave heroes, the marshals in orange are once again dispatched to clean the wreckage up. Code 60. Code 120 activated as the lory's are out there retrieving the shards of carbon fiber as well as the twisted pieces of Armco barrier.
Time to bolt together some new sheet metal and install it. What a magnificent overhead view of the Nurburgring and the surrounding forests and countryside here in the Eifel Mountains. No, it's not quite the Austrian alps. But you wonder if someone is off yodeling somewhere. We see the chopper speeding through the air giving us these fabulous overhead views from a camera mounted on it's left side. The other Ferrari in the race is still running well. We can see the blue and white Ferrari speeding through the Karrussell, for Racing One GmbH. German drivers Christian Kohlhaas and Jules Szymkowiak sharing with Englishman Nick Foster and Dutchman Jeroen Bleekemolen. We've seen Jeroen Bleekemolen in a bunch of different cars and championships over the last number of years. A versatile driver is he.
It won't be long and the sun will set over the Nordschleife. Now then, it appears "Grello" is back on track? No. This has to be an earlier highlight video before that massive accident as we see one of the Rowe BMW M4 GT3's in a hotly contested fight with the only GT3 spec Aston Martin in the motor race. This is the #90 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3. Team boss Tom Ferrier (the initials in TF Sport) has put together a lineup of Nicki Thiim from Germany, David Pittard from England (better known for racing the old BMW M6 GT3 around this place), Marco Sorensen from Denmark, and the Belgian Maxime Martin, another Aston factory driver who was also formerly with BMW years ago.
This is a venerable line up but we have not heard much from them in the race until about now. The Aston moves past the Rowe Racing #98 BMW M4 GT3. Fans revel in the twilight of a Saturday night at the Nurburgring and you can see and smell campfires beginning to burn. That #98 BMW we've oft mentioned is still in the battle at the sharp end. This is the Nicky Catsburg, John Edwards, Sheldon van der Linde, Marco Wittman car. What did I say? The campsites here at the Nurburgring are jam packed with fans glad to be back to see some quality motor racing.
Uh oh. Houston, we have a problem. More fire, but this isn't a good one. A fire breathing dragon? No. This is one of the KTM X-Bow's and the car is without doubt on fiyah! A colloquial slang spelling for fire. It looks like oil or fuel or something has ignited on the turbo or the red hot headers. This is the #160 Teichmann Racing GmbH KTM X-Bow GTX in the Cup X division with driver Felix von der Laden at the wheel of it. Felix, you are on fire, sunbeam, and not in a good way. Now, Felix von der Laden has made it to a corner station and he bails out of the car while the marshals are throwing the fire extinguishant on it.
One problem. Felix, mate, you forgot to set the brake, and the KTM has a mind of it's own and robotically starts coasting down the hill while still on fire. Felix von der Laden's KTM looks like something from a horror movie as it hurtles down the track like a meteor, burning and sizzling, spewing noxious clouds of dense, impenetrable smoke. It looks like a flaming apparition about to devour it's victims! Run away! It's a giant fireball! The runaway car from the Green Hell, apparently, at least briefly. A real-life hell on wheels. The team in the garage are stunned. They cannot believe their eyes! Finally, the marshals manage to corral the flaming beast and Felix von der Laden makes good his escape.
The fans are settling in and there's more fire, but this is the type for keeping warm and cooking sausages on. Is anybody hungry? The sun sets and the Ferris wheel in the carnival is lit up, a requisite part of any 24-hour motor race from here at the Nurburgring, to Le Mans, to Daytona and so forth. Night falls on the mountain, a maelstrom of whirling lights in a dark forest. Trouble in paradise for another Porsche Cayman as he skids off into the grass. That is the #261 Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport. This is the Cup 3 Cayman for Team Mathol Racing e.V. Rudiger Schicht sharing with a driver known as "Montana", Tony Richards, and Peter Cate.
Robin Frijns now at the wheel of the #15 Audi Sport Team Phoenix R8, and directly through his windshield, look, we see contact between a KTM X-Bow and another Porsche. The majestic Nurburg castle looks completely different at night than in the daylight hours. What a gorgeous sight to behold of the medieval castle. Pit stop time once again, and a clear demonstration of the technique of turning the cars sideways on the dollies to allow for more space in the lane. This is the blue Ferrari 488 GT3, the only other GT3 spec Ferrari in the race, the #14 car for Racing One with Hella lights and Pagid brakes sponsorship.
They are changing the brake pads right now, what a coincidence. This is something in all long-distance races that teams have to do at least once. Good thing they are sponsored by a brake company. Pagid makes brake pads, and they supply them to this team if that is one of the main sponsors. Good product placement but great incentive for the team to have plenty of brake components too. Now we move to the wee hours of the morning as the first vestiges of light finger their way into the forest. Overnight, we did see another massive accident. Remember when the sole GT3 Aston Martin crashed? Well, a short time later, the #98 Rowe Racing BMW M4 GT3 suffered the same fate.
Sheldon van der Linde, in the eighth hour of the motor race had a clatter with the Armco barriers at Bergwerk corner, and it was over and out for the #98 team of van der Linde, John Edwards, Nicky Catsburg, and Marco Wittmann. Could it be that the sister Rowe BMW M4 GT3 will keep on trucking? That's the car of American Connor De Philippi, Philipp Eng from Austria, Augusto Farfus, the Brazilian now living in Monaco, and Englishman Nick Yelloly. So, morning comes and we have another KTM in a spot of bother. This one is in the gravel trap. Car #163 is the fourth of four Teichmann Racing KTM X-Bow GT4's in the Cup X class.
We do not know who is in the car, but they are buried in the gravel and need rescuing. This is the all-German lineup of Phil Hill (no relation to the late, great 1961 Formula 1 World Champion for Ferrari, who was the first American world champ), "Maximillian" another one-name racing driver, Andreas Tasche, and Michael Monsch. Spinning your rear wheels in the gravel will not work and will dig you in deeper, mate. More campfires burning. Now, we might be rewinding back to the nighttime. Remember that incident I mentioned about BMW #98? In the video, we see a replay of Marco Wittmann making a routine pit stop. This is still in the hours of darkness at the Nordschleife.
He hits the lane for service. All is well. But, in the darkness headed for a righthand curve, Wittmann loses control, and smash! He plows straight into the Armco on the right-hand side with the passenger side of the car! He skids along the Armco tearing the right-hand side of that BMW M4 GT3 to pieces! The Rowe Racing mechanics are crushed. They cannot believe what they've just seen. They console each other in the garage, probably thinking, "ugh! It's over now. We'll be back and get them, next year." That's motor racing. You may have a setback, but you never, ever give up.
We still see the #15 Audi Sport Team Phoenix Audi R8 in the lead of this motor race, watching spectators on the hillside putting up red flares to see in the dark and also, the extremely exhausted pit crews doing all they can in the garage to get some shuteye as the Nurburgring 24 rolls on. Now, also in the dark of night, there was major trouble for the #5 Scherer Sport Team Phoenix Audi, the sister car to the #15 we just mentioned. Kelvin van der Linde at the wheel of it, and the South African runs wide on the Grand Prix section, spins out, skitters his way across the gravel at a high rate of speed, and clobbers the barrier! Game over for the #5. van der Linde sharing with German's Vincent Kolb and Frank Stippler, and Ricardo "Ricky" Feller from Switzerland, are out of this one.
A sketchy moment here, look in one of the curves just before you turn onto the Nordschleife. This could be in the Sabine Schmitz S, as the #44 Falken Tire Porsche 911 GT3R is facing the wrong way and other cars are forced to take evasive action! Heavy damage is also incurred to the #89 Opel Astra Cup car in the SP3T class. This is an all-French squad of drivers racing under aliases or pseudonyms featuring "St. Germain en Laye", "Nonville", "Auffargis", and "Antony". The front end of that Astra is crunched, and we'll worry about that one later.
Pit stop time for the #20 Schubert Motorsport BMW M4 GT3. We've not called these guys' number yet. This is Jesse Krohn of Finland (full name Jesse Kurki-Suonio), Alexander Sims, Jens Klingman, and Niklas Krutten. Niklas Krutten, one of two German drivers in this foursome, we have seen him competing in prototypes more recently. I wonder if this is his first start aboard a GT3 car. The #20 Schubert Motorsport car resumes and gets back on track. Full service pitwork also going on on the #15 Audi, the leader of the motor race with a couple mechanics giving strict attention to the front of the Audi.
Dries Vanthoor did have another close shave with a slower car on the circuit. Speaking of close shaves, and another incident, Porsche #85 is stopped on the road in the darkness, and that car looks to have steam billowing out the front radiator unit. That is being towed back on the tow rope behind a course car, a course SUV. That is the SP 10 class (GT4) Porsche Cayman for Black Falcon Team Textar, and Black Falcon, we used to see them in GT3 with a Mercedes. Now they are in the GT4 Porsche world. But their all-German quartet of drivers including Martin Meenen, Marco Muller, Carsten Palluth, and Tobias Wahl are in a spot of bother right now. Not just that. But we have another stranded KTM. Not a good race at the Nurburgring this year for a number of the KTM X-Bow entrants.
The fireworks explode in the sky over the Nurburgring as we continue on rewind back to the night racing action before we fast forward again to the morning. Raffaele Marciello, the rapid Mercedes-AMG factory driver Raffaele Marciello, the Italian, now under a Swiss racing license. Marciello, through the Karrussell, sweeps past a Porsche Cayman. Marciello a part of a trio of drivers for Mercedes-AMG Team Bilstein alongside Luca Stolz and Phil Ellis, both German's. Luca Stolz just recently teamed up with Aussie Kenny Habul and Jules Gounon to win the Bathurst 12 Hours as you read about last week.
The fireworks continue to explode in the sky over the Nurburgring. Fog blankets the mountain as we now return to the daylight hours on Sunday morning. Robin Frijns is about to make a pass on one of the Porsche's. Piece of cake. He does so, cleanly. Meanwhile, Max Hesse in the #72 BMW Junior Team BMW M4 GT3 is seemingly cruising, but he has a big problem! Hesse spins out! The force of the spin rips one of the windscreen tear offs off, the thin plastic sheets that are used to give driver's clear vision, the tearoff wraps it's way 'round the windscreen wiper. Hesse does a complete 360 but soon realizes there is more trouble with the BMW M4 GT3 than he first thought, pulling the car off next to the Armco and being helped by the marshals.
Game over for the BMW Junior Team. The Hesse/Harper/Verhagen trio were running very well through the entire race. I believe they also won one of the Nuburgring Langstrecken Series 4-hour races earlier in the year. That's a darn shame their race came to a premature end. Maximilian Gotz is putting the #3 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed AMG GT3 in a good spot. Well, not quite. Gotz goes off the road and into the gravel trap at what looks like one of the corners on the downhill side of the mountain. Cannot tell if he is in Wipperman, or Brunchen, just before the Pflanzgarten. Nonetheless, he is off in the gravel trap. Spectators are just waking up, as we see a couple of kids here with their family having a race of their own down a hill on pedal cars, or ride on car toys.
Oh my! A big off for the #122 Black Falcon Porsche 911 GT3 Cup! That is one of the new 992 cars. American Peter Ludwig sharing with three German drivers including Noah Nagelsdiek, Reinhold Renger, and Maik Rosenberg. He hops the curb through Eiskurve downhill to the Pflanzgarten, spins across the race track, and nails the Armco barrier removing the front bumper of the Porsche and exploding the front mounted radiators on that 992 Cup car! From the camera at Flugplatz, we can see the incident and the cameraman knew he had to duck! That was a close one! Phew! One of the Audi's is in the lane for service and Jules Gounon is at the ready for his next stint aboard the BWT Mercedes AMG GT3, car #4. Meanwhile, the sister #3 entry is running in about second place right now from the look of it.
No one has been able to catch the #15 Audi but to be sure, the GetSpeed Mercedes boys are trying everything they know, everything in the book to chase down Audi Sport Team Phoenix. #4 rumbles and rattles his way through the Karussel. One of the crewmen from the #242 BMW M240i Racing Cup pit crew gives a wave to the camera. This car is competing in it's own class among identically prepared entries for the BMW M2 model. Some of the classes are like that at the Nurburgring, one-make championships for smaller, slightly slower touring cars amid the big bruisers from GT3 and GT4. This is Adrenalin Motorsport Team Alzner Automotive with a half Spanish, half German driver lineup of Guillermo Aso, Alvaro Fontes, and Harold and Ronny Leppert.
A slippery surface flag is displayed for oil or some fluid down on the track. That is the yellow and red striped flag. We can see the windscreen wiper on a GT3 car cleaning it and one of the mechanics looks very happy with how things are going. The #706 Glickenhaus SCG 004C drives through the Karussel as the chase is on now between Audi Team Phoenix and Mercedes Team GetSpeed as we reach the climax of this year's golden jubilee running of the Nurburgring 24 Hours. Maximilian Gotz is the next driver to take the #3 Team GetSpeed Mercedes AMG GT3 on track. Audi Sport Customer Racing boss Chris Reinke is observing the garage TV monitor with one of the drivers.
#15 have not put a wheel wrong this whole race. Some rain now appears on the Nordschleife, or at least on the Grand Prix section of the Nurburgring. The #15 team, for the remainder of the race, they did not put a wheel wrong. Kelvin van der Linde brings it home for Audi Sport Team Phoenix! Audi win for the first time at the Nurburgring since 2019 and score a win on the tenth anniversary of their first Nurburgring triumph! Audi moves ahead of Ford on the all-time manufacturer's winners list at the Nurburgring 24 with their sixth win, to Ford's five that they scored four times consecutively between 1979-'82 and 1987 with the Escort, the Capri, and the massively successful Sierra RS Cosworth.
BMW remain at the top of the heap with 20 wins at the Nurburgring 24 followed by Porsche with 13. Audi won back-to-back in 2014 and '15. BMW also have had strings of success here. Four straight wins between 1970 and '73, and a few hat tricks in 1971, '72, and '73, '84, '85, and '86, four straight from 1989-1992, and five straight between 1994 and 1998 back when this race was a touring car event as well as going back to back with the awesome BMW M3 GTR in 2004 and 2005. Porsche had two hat tricks, 30 years apart in 1976-1978 and 2006-2008.
What did yours truly say? German brands dominate this race and this circuit because they know it and they do all their testing here at the Nurburgring for production and race cars alike.
#15 Frijns/van der Linde/Vanthoor/Vervisch Audi R8 LMS Evo II.
159 laps, over 100 more than in the weather affected 2021 race, completed. 2,512 miles. So, that is a wrap from the golden jubilee edition of the Nurburgring 24 Hours. See you next year for another one. But, before we go, here are the race highlights. For the first time in a number of years on the 50th anniversary we had a race that was mostly dry and not affected adversely by bad weather, with rain and fog. There were thrills and spills but no interventions from mother nature that had plagued three of the previous four runnings of this motor race.
So, there you have it. The 50th Nurburgring 24 Hours is in the bag. We'll see you next year in 2023 for edition 51. Auf wiedersehen from the Eiffel Mountains. So long, everyone.
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